Meet App for MSFT Teams: Foundational to launch

Overview

Partnering with the meeting lifecycle team at Microsoft, I designed and ran a series of studies exploring the idea of a new space for meeting prep and follow-up. These areas of work had been shown by previous research to be under-served in Teams and a potential opportunity. The 3 part series started with collecting jobs and exploring possible meet app themes, moved into concept testing, and finally in-code evaluations with participant’s own meeting data. I worked closely alongside PM, design, content and engineering to bring this new app to market.

The main research questions were:

• What are pre and post meeting jobs and pain points, and do potential Meet app themes resonate?

• Do users understand and see value in Meet app concepts?

• Is the Meet app usable and does it provide value?

Approach

I leveraged a multi-method approach to evaluate the Meet app across several studies with a focus on getting setting a good foundation of knowledge before jumping into concepts, which the team was eager to do.

In addition to the research, I was embedded with stakeholders, meeting with them weekly and providing guidance and feedback in discussions and brainstorms.

The three planned studies were based on addressing the primary research questions:

1. <Foundational> Individual interviews to answer ‘What are pre and post meeting jobs and pain points, and do potential Meet app themes resonate?’

2. <Concepts> Individual interviews + Concept Testing to answer ‘Do users understand and see value in Meet app concepts?’

3. <Code> Cognitive Walkthrough/Usability + Longitudinal Survey to answer ‘Is the Meet app usable and does it provide value in real life?’

1. Individual Interviews

In the first study, I focused on gathering a foundational understanding of their meeting jobs and any friction related with each. I also had them entertain the idea of what a space called ‘Meet’ might be able to do for them without showing any concepts. I covered some themes--Prepare, Join, Catch-up, Discover—that the team was thinking about for the Meet app.

Research Goals:

• Understand work projects and associated pain points, and what prompts synchronous gatherings during the project

• Build list of meetings jobs for work project meetings, with a particular focus on before and after, gathering tools (i.e., where jobs live) and current pain points

• Gather feedback on a new ‘space for meetings,’ including expectations, potential utility, and which meeting jobs they would like to get done there

Process:

I spoke with 10 Information Workers with team project work experience, including a mix of Teams and non-Teams users.

Results:

Reporting from this foundational study provided important insights to help the team focus their efforts in a new space. The team found out that proposed Meet app themes mostly resonated, especially Start, Prepare & Catch-up. The work was presented several times to broader audiences, and themes generated from the study identified gaps and opportunities in the meeting lifecycle and have consequently been leveraged more broadly across Teams meetings.

This foundational study has proven to be particularly influential at Microsoft with 1500 views to date, including organizations outside of Teams.

Example slides in the final report can be seen below:

"Thanks for your great work with this study Nathan. Excited to keep working with you to roll these insights into the Meet App and find product/market fit." - Lead PM

2. Individual Interviews + Concept Testing

I continued to work regularly with the Meet app team, providing feedback as they coalesced their designs. The next study gathered feedback on design concepts, along with some revisiting expectations and jobs from the previous study to strengthen those findings.

Research Goals:

• Understand top tasks and pain points for meetings

• Gather expectations of a new space for meetings

• Gather feedback from current Meet app designs including ‘Upcoming’ and ‘Recent’, and the prioritization of elements/signals they might contain

Process:

I spoke with 8 Information workers, a mix of individual contributors (5 meetings/week) and manager profiles (>10 meetings/week). This ensured we were speaking with users with a typical meeting load (~5/week) along with those who exceeded that; Microsoft employees often exceed 20 meetings per week. Given the Teams-specific designs being shown, I limited this study to participants using Teams for their work.

Results:

My feedback from this study impacted Teams at the product level, guiding the team on how to best position and focus the meet app within Teams, plus insights related to other areas such as calls and calendar. I worked closely with the team in their presentations to leadership, including presenting findings, which were well received and generated the confidence that the Meet app was ready for the partner roadshows critical for buy-in to get the app built for Teams. Ultimately, the team decided to move on to coding the experience.

“I thought the <CVP> review went fantastic. Very solid story both in terms of initial framing and concepts, all the work this year to refine it including research. Now is the time for a road show, now you can go out with confidence, that here is the right data that this has promise, now help us get there.” – Partner GPM of Teams Meetings

Example slides in the final report can be seen below:

3. Cognitive Walkthrough/Usability + Longitudinal Survey

I continued to work with v-team developing Meet app as the process moved to coding, and provided ongoing research insights and help integrate research into key presentations at the LT level. When there was a transition with the lead PM, I worked closely to help get him up to speed quickly. The v-team expanded to multiple cross-geo teams during this coding stage, so clear communication and partnership became even more critical, including weekly meetings. The last study focused on getting early code feedback from end users.

Research Goals:

• Understand user mental model and perception of the Meet app using real code (i.e., user’s own content)

• Collect initial and longitudinal feedback after a couple weeks, to understand usability and usage

Process:

I was limited to internal Microsoft participants for this study, given the code requirements, so I used a Form survey to recruit from outside the Teams team to limit bias and proximity to product. Still, there was a recognition that these participants did not represent true end users.

I recruited 12 participants, with a mix of target (6-10 mtgs/wk) and power users (>10 mtgs/wk).

I leveraged multiple methods (cognitive walkthrough, usability, survey) to drive key decision-making and ring progression guidance:

• The initial cog walk / usability session with users was task-based to drive exploration and ensure I gathered feedback across all key areas of the app.

• The survey was shared two weeks after the sessions, to understand usage and perceptions over time.

Results:

During the study I provided top-level findings from the study that were integrated into LT meetings and planning, including in between the initial session and the survey follow-up. The results provided recommendations on improving discoverability of some elements (chat, recap), and design changes to ‘Up next’ which users found most challenging and less useful compared to ‘Recent’. Based on research, leadership felt comfortable moving into later rings to gather feedback and usage data from external users.

“It's good that we caught this and thank you, Nathan, for keeping us grounded on what the user feedback is and that's a good thing. Let's go fix it.” - CVP of Teams meetings

“Every time you open your mouth on one of these calls, I learn something new!” - Principal PM

Example slides in the final report can be seen below: